You know it is time to go back to work when you have made cinnamon rolls, sugar cookies, banana nut bread, and mini-cheesecakes as well as cleaned the house, organized your shoes, discovered your refrigerator is on wheels which means you can clean behind it by yourself, and determined that daytime TV really is no good.

Anyone want some mini-cheesecakes or a mini-loaf of banana nut bread???  Or does someone actually need something baked and just doesn't feel like doing it??

Singing John

John entertained us while enjoying a Christmas sprinkles, chocolate glazed Tato-nut.

Up first - John informing us that he is a Saints fan (and we have decided he could be on the edge of becoming a coonass (the term used in this area to describe a redneck from LA)).  (Please note that I called myself a redneck in the previous post).  No worries Atlanta friends - MB and I quickly taught him the "Dirty Bird."

Then he moved on to signing "Jingle Bells."  MB had taught him the "Batman smells, Robin laid an egg" rendition - so Uncle Andrew surprised us by teaching John another one while we were at the grocery store.  This was the first time he had sung his new words (thanks once again to Uncle Andrew) so it goes without saying that MB and I were shocked.

Yes, he said, "Batman smells, Robin....Tucker dropped a turd."  I promise, Andrew really only teaches John these things to pick at my sister.  He really doesn't teach other kids such bad things...really I promise.  See previous post about teaching John gun safety and building all the neat things with legos.

And finally - he sang songs from his Christmas program.

Redneck Christmas

Andrew and I opted to give each other a shared gift this year for Christmas.  It is a new toy that both of us have wanted and started to worry that if we didn't buy it soon, we wouldn't be able to buy one...

We weren't able to shoot it before Christmas so of course we took it with us so we could shoot in Macon.  Well...as our luck would have it...it rained on Christmas Eve (even though the forecast said it wouldn't), but we didn't let that stop us.  The reason southern homes have porches is for drinking sweet tea, visiting with friends, and...

 shooting your guns into the dirt pile.  Yep, we did that.  Yep, we are those people.

Continuing on - my father in law found these beer glasses for his boys.

 It says, "REDNECK 8oz, Good Ole Boy 6oz, Member NRA 4oz, Yankee 2oz."

Yep, really - we are those people.  For those of you that thought we only spent time at the golf country club - think again - we spend time at the redneck country club as well.

Christmas, Part 1

Yes I know I haven't updated the rest of Thanksgiving - but someone, cough, cough, Brandy, cough, hasn't loaded up the pictures.

We started Christmas in Ocean Springs, made a pit-stop just north of Mobile for a brief exchange, then finished in Macon.  Mom and Dad, Grandmomma and Granddaddy were all supposed to be with us in Ocean Springs, but Mom got sick and couldn't make the trip until Sunday - when we were leaving.  So we got to spend time with everyone and at least got to see Mom and Dad.

After this trip home, we have decided that Alabama needs new welcome signs.  They should read, "Welcome to Alabama!  Warning: We make budget each year by creating phantom work zones (note: you will not see any work done for years) so we can drop the speed limit without warning by 20 mph, then set up the ultimate speed trap with 50 troopers and one on the bridge.  We hope you enjoy your trip!"

Tucker jumped in the car when I started to load it for the trip.  He refused to get out, so I loaded around him and he sat there for an hour before we went any where!!  I would say he was ready to go.

 See, I've added bags in the floor.

 And finally his bed.

The kid loved, and I do mean loved, his dino rain coat and umbrella.

 And his legos -

Uncle Andrew built him a dino with legos.  While building with Uncle Andrew, he said, "I though legos were boring until today.  I didn't know you could build really tall towers, dinos, and houses!!"  Leave it to Uncle Andrew to teach that boy something.

We also gave him a dart gun.  He was given very specific instructions about not shooting at people or dogs and always walk with the barrel pointed down.  He corrected me once for carrying it with the barrel out and put his daddy in time out when Hugh shot MB, haha!!  The adults are always the trouble makers.  He also learned that you "had to wick" the bullets to make them stick...he means lick.

After a long day of cooking, running, eating, opening gifts, everyone was taking a break.  MB and I were on the porch in her rope chairs - think mini-hammocks...awesome - with the windows opened because we may have burnt something earlier in the day drinking several adult treats when our boys decided to take a break too.  They had been playing together all day.  They really love each other.  The only problem was John could crawl through the window but Tucker is too big - he didn't like that too much.

Nap Time

Andrew was post call today, which means he was very tired.  However, he really wanted to go to the driving range.  Since I don't like for him to drive post call, I offered to drive him out there so he could hit for a while.  On the drive, he got really quiet...

Guess it was a really good thing I drove him.

Nerd Alert

This is a normal Friday night for most people right?? Two electronic devices (three actually, my phone that I used to take the picture), a beer, bag of ice on a semi-bummed foot, and Duck Dynasty.

"New Castle"

I decided to construct a gingerbread house from scratch this year since I wanted a gingerbread house and I'm always up for a challenge.  I made, rolled, cut, and baked the pieces earlier in the day.  Things were looking great at this point.  Then while enjoying a Newcastle (only one...I promise.  I know it looks more like a 6 pack, but it was just one...I'm not an artist), I constructed and decorated the beauty. 

 Humm...this is a problem already.

 It's a little off center and the light post is leaning and the candy on the front windows are uneven, but not too bad right?

 Uh, now the other light pole is leaning...

 Is it just me or does it look a little like a famous leaning tower at this point??

And here she is a week later, one man down from the roof, the candy is dripping and sliding and the roof is pitching a little more these days.

You are welcome - enjoy the laugh!

Christmas Lights

There are two houses side-by-side in the neighborhood that take Christmas lights to new extremes...

 The lights on this roof blink - so it was tough to get a good picture.

And the snowflakes are all over this roof...

How We Roll

This is how John-boy rolls...

 We pack the backseat floor with our bags and you know who uses them as an extension of the back seat so he can rest his head on the arm rest...

And when he is super sleepy on the way home, he yawns...every time I try to take a picture...

Thanksgiving, Part 1

We made the trip to Georgia for Thanksgiving.  We were able to spend time with both families and ate more food than any one person should ever eat in a 24 hour period.

Here are a few pictures from the Nunn Thanksgiving at Mom and Dad's.

If Mom and I start making 5 recipes at the same time, in the same kitchen - we suggest running for your life..

it has been known to get a little out of hand.

And if you can't find the lid to a pot or know that you threw the lid to your pressure cooker you got as a wedding present nearly 40 years ago - just get the skillet you got at the same time out and use it...

Pumpkin Spice Hershey

Okay, okay - I will admit that I have an issue when it comes to chocolate and sweets and most anything pumpkin.  I love them all - in fact, if I turn away chocolate, a sweet, or pumpkin - make sure I'm not sick.  However, for the first time ever, I couldn't handle something that was all of the above - chocolate, pumpkin, and sweet.  A Pumpkin Spice Hershey kiss.  It was horrible.  I think they are white chocolate first of all - and let's all admit that white chocolate is not chocolate.  Second, the pumpkin spicy was too much.  Third, it was gross...just gross.

Yes, I am still running.  Shocking, I know.  I'm dreading the 6-miler the day after Thanksgiving.  There is no way in heck I'm cutting back on food for Thanksgiving, but I do think I will stick to beer over wine this year.  The 3-mile runs twice a week are dreaded more than the long runs...that's because once I get beyond mile 2.5 I really start hitting my pace and feel great.  Before mile 2.5 - I feel like crap.

In other news - Andrew's truck has made it to 100K miles.  Not sure how it made it, but it did!!  Now if we can just keep it going for another couple of years, I will be happy.  However, it still hates me.  If I drive it, it makes all sorts of weird noises and does funny things - guess it knows that I don't like it.

Not Good...

I was washing some new clothes over the weekend and obviously forgot to remove the price tags before I washed them...

 See all those lovely little pieces of gray, white, and red...yep that would be price tag paper...

 In case you are wondering how to remove said objects from your washer - here is my solution.  The clothes can go straight in the dryer - it will pull out the paper for you.  To clean the washer, you have two options.  Option A, boring - pick it out by hand.  Option B, inner-kid thriller - fill the washer up with a couple of inches of water (it was a small load so all the paper was at the bottom), and let the spin cycle run for about 10 seconds, throw open the lid, stick a slotted spoon in the gap between the spinner and the wall and watch it collect on the spoon...repeat this process until it is all gone.  Modification - create your own spin cycle (then it doesn't drain the water).

Yes, I went with option b - and had a great time cleaning up my mess.

Snug as a Bug

Tucker has been waking us up numerous times every night lately for unknown reasons.  So we decided that since we know he is a bit cold natured that maybe it was because he was cold.  We haven't turned on the heat at our house and the fan is still on high...so yeah, he could be cold.  Well, last night we tried to cover him up with a blanket to see if it would help.

Guess what??  It worked!  He slept all night long.  He did get out from under the blanket during the night, but he didn't ask to go out or get in his chair!  We covered him back up this morning for the picture - but really, believe me - he slept all night like this.  Looks like my favorite blanket for watching TV has been reassigned to Tucker duty.

Family Weekend

We enjoyed a weekend visit from Mom and Dad, MB & Hugh, and John & Tico.  It was a great weekend of eating, shopping, and laughing.  John kept us laughing about something the entire time.  It sure is nice to be able to get the entire family together.

Friday night - we went to Sal and Mookie's and shared a "Sonic Boom."  They are doing special pizzas all fall based on different football teams.  This was in honor of JSU - but it was buffalo chicken pizza and it was awesome!!!  If you have a chance between now and when they stop the specials and you like boneless wings - you should try it.

We also managed to get the light fixed in my kitchen - which is wonderful!  I finally have an overhead light.  Yay for perfect timing with the time change and trying to cook dinner.

I have figured this running thing out - don't even think about running after 8am.  I've figured out pretty quickly that my body hates me if I attempt to run at lunch or in the afternoon - morning runs are the way to go.  I've also learned that some folks in our neighborhood use really good smelling shampoo that makes it's way out of their bathroom vents to the street - the same can be said about laundry.  I've also learned that Friday mornings stink...it's trash day.

90's on 9

I have recently jumped ship from country to 90's on 9 on XM.  Let's just say that I am having a little too much fun jamming out to Will Smith, Hootie, En Vogue, Duran Duran, etc.  However, this morning was the best yet - Whoop, There It Is - was playing!!  I mean, how can you not get pumped for the day when jamming to that??

Anyway - Does anyone else still call Darius Rucker Hootie??  Because I do.  And it makes me happy to see this on the screen because he will forever be Hootie.

Bubba's Attack

We played in a couples golf tournament on Sunday, and boy, was it a challenge.  We knew that Bubba, the course superintendent, was picking the pin placements and fully expected them to be on slopes, etc.  Sure enough they had to implement a 3 putt maximum.  We were told that the best way to make the putts on some holes was to hit it past the hole and let it roll back in the cup.  It was a beast.

On top of that - they decided it would be funny to add a few "extra" challenges.  So we hit a tennis ball with a golf club off one tee, kicked a (flat) soccer ball off another one, had to use a left handed club for a tee shot,  putt blindfolded, putt with a tennis racket, and putt around a toilet seat.  Bottom line - Bubba attacked...and he won.  While laughed our tails off and had a great time, it was more of a challenge than we really wanted.

It was a great afternoon - but next time they call to ask if we want to play - I'm going to ask just what else they haven't told us about before signing up for another tail kicking.

Little of This, Little of That

Anyone see anything wrong with this picture of my refrigerator??

 No really, anything?  How about we have more beer than anything...in fact, we basically only have beer.  Cooking club is tomorrow night - hence all the tomatoes.  And actually, I just realized I put them in there and really didn't mean to do that...ha.  We have a great selection of Sam Adams, a few Newcastle, and some left over junk (aka light beer).

 Tucker was pouting tonight and decided this was the only way he could make me feel really bad...yes, he is "resting" his head on the coffee table...don't ask about this dog, he ain't right.

 I just love this picture of John chilling with Mr. Jeff.  My folks and some friends went to the mountains for the weekend and John tagged along.

 This is a classic.  I have never been to pick fruit with Dad when he didn't eat straight from the tree...  I love that he is passing this trick along to John.  But most of all - take note of his skills.  Dad just peeled and sliced that apple with his pocket knife which is also his "fork."  Dad does not eat with this fingers - even in the field, ha!

 Dearest John - STOP GROWING!  That is exactly what Mom is  thinking in this picture.

 Steven - it's your turn buddy.  Great job on opening morning...seriously, good job.

But Steve-Steve - when are you going to clean your own deer??

 And finally - James and Tucker - these two are a hoot.  James loves Tucker and it doesn't bother him at all that Tucker has at least 100 pounds and three feet on him.

"Tucker, just sit back.  I can drive this car."

 Two happy boys.

I Can Do Math!!

Well, folks - I can do math after all.  I ran just over 3 miles - as in 3.02 miles - and this was my time...

That says 29:45...

That means I averaged a little less than 10 minutes per mile.  Remember just Wednesday, my pace was 11 minutes.  Progress, folks, progress!

FYI - the best running shirts for cool morning - Andrew's undershirts...ha!